This seems strange so I thought I'd bounce it off some of you guys who probably know better...

My sister took her Golf GTI to her local ATS for a couple of new front tyres. Despite the car being front wheel drive (and of course front wheel steering lol), she was told they'd have to put the new tyres on the REAR and put the old rear ones on the front.

To my way of thinking this is totally illogical on a front wheel drive car but another fast-fit place has confirmed this is "current practice". Any ideas why?

was told this years ago by a few places, not totally sure why either.

maybe a guru could help

It is the right way to do it.

It's related to grip at the rear and breaking away.

The french came up with it as I recall... I don't have the link to hand or in my mind, I'm sure somebody will.

I have always done this. Think of the lift off over steer scenario......

You need grip at the back, not the front

It seems to be the current fashion. We debate it from time to time. In the end, the customer should be able to make their own decision, but actually it doesn't make much difference to tyre wear - each time you need 2 more tyres they put them on the back and rotate the old ones to the front. Uses the same number of tyres in the long run.

With the debate of whether newer tyres / less worn tyres should go on front or rear, I now have a very strong preference for giving the best grip on the back

It's nice to have the rear end swinging out a bit on bends when you want to play, but the time it snaps a bit more than you want, you have very little control available to recover. It has resulted in the past to at least one, if not two furbies landing on roofs. Of course, you can also put it down to driver stupidity, but I'm now wiser

I'm not sure my sister drives hard enough for it to make much of a difference!

For her kind of driving I'd have thought newer tyres on the front for best braking in an emergency would be better but I do see the other side of the argument now.

Thanks for your input guys!

Bear in mind that this "extra grip on the rear" only applies in the wet. In the dry, tyres with less tread actually grip better.

HTH :P

When I went to Costco for tyres the guy produced a letter from the Brittish Tyre Association, stating that all it's members nust fit the new tyres to the rear if only one or two are being fitted. It's part of their code of conduct.

Bear in mind that this "extra grip on the rear" only applies in the wet. In the dry' date=' tyres with less tread actually grip better.

HTH :P[/quote']

Agreed with Nick here, wet road and limited driving experience means it best to experience understeer (which lifting off the gas pedal should correct) rather than oversteer skid whereby the natural reaction would be to hit the brakes and probably make the situation worst.

Don't front tyres wear differently to rears?

I'm just thinking that when you steer, the front wheels tip over a bit don't they? (just a little)

So won't you get some wear on the sides, whereas the back wheels wear more in the middle.

Ian

Top Gear did some tests on this - basically put the new tyre on the BACK and you'll have better braking performance, control and so on, admittedly mainly in the wet (or general slippery conditions).

With the good tyre at the front, and 'barely-legal' at the back, the car swapped sides

Just thought i'd add my tuppence.

Don't know about all the lift off oversteer and that, but i thought the reason you put the new ones on the back and rotated the used rears to the front was down to the possibility of going thru 4 or 5 pairs on the front while still having the originals on the rear. Cars that don't wear the rears quickly could potentially have tyres that are many many years old on the rear and (i think i'm right in saying) tyres have a "shelf" life of about 5 years after which they should be replaced regardless of wear.

Although not much chance of that if you drive like a loon.